Industrial destruction, nature, science fiction, fantasy and mankind

Industrial destruction is one of the themes that the fantasy and science fiction genre have explored as an essential theme for decades. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, especially as envisioned by filmmaker Peter Jackson, is clearly man’s destruction of nature in search of power as Saruman clear cuts forests and uses machines to create genetically superior Uruk-hai. In Disney’s Maleficent, men attack the Fair Folk with the weapons of war. The Fair Folk defend themselves with magic, and the creatures are born out of the trees, much like the Tolkien’s Ents. Iron, an ore men refine and the very thing that has defined the development of men through the modern age, burns fairies. This isn’t new to the stories of fairies in general. Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea explores the idea of atomic power even though the book was written long before the Bomb was built. Nemo is an inventor who has a submarine, eats from the sea and uses an unknown power source. In the end, he realizes that what he has is too powerful for the people of his time, and he blows up his island and all of his inventions. The examples of men developing a destructive power and it coming back to destroy civilization are dauntingly long. The industrial age’s reduction of people to replaceable cogs in a machine has allowed mankind to see people as less than human. People have become resources to be used, abused and thrown away much in the same way that other resources are exploited. While fantasy and science fiction have been sounding the warning trumpets, literature has been trumped by the sound of the steam whistle ending the workday. Man continues to eschew the idea of finding a balance, and looks to technology to compensate for mankind’s overconsumption.Read the movie review for Maleficent here'Maleficent' strikes a cultural nerveRead 'Frozen' and 'Maleficent' create instant clicheRead about the Maleficent sneak peek at Disney California AdventureEvil is simpleMaleficent changes her characterAn alternate ending for 'Maleficent'?